1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a cable end connector assembly, and more particularly to a Serial Advanced Technology Attachment (Serial ATA) cable end connector assembly with an improved spacer for providing good electric transmission performances.
2. Description of Related Art
There exists in the art an electrical connector known as a Serial ATA connector, which is generally used for disk drives and storage peripherals connecting with a mother board. Generally, a Serial ATA cable end connector assembly comprises a housing with a plurality of terminals therein and a cable having a plurality of wires. Tail ends of the terminals terminate the wires of the cable. For positioning the terminals, the Serial ATA cable end connector assembly usually further includes a spacer attached to the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,623,299 B1 discloses such a Serial ATA cable end connector assembly having a dielectric housing, a plurality of contacts, a spacer and a cable having a plurality of conductive cores. Each contact comprises a retention portion, a mating portion extending forwardly from the retention portion and a tail portion extending rearwardly from the retention portion. The spacer has a plurality of positioning holes therein and a plurality of tubers in upper and lower edges. After the contacts are positioned in the housing, the spacer is attached to a rear end of the housing with the tubers engaging with an inner surface of the housing. The tail portions of the contacts extend through the positioning holes of the spacer and are exposed beyond a rear side of the spacer for being soldered with corresponding conductive cores of the cable. However, because each tail portion of the contact projects outside the rear side of the spacer in a suspended manner, the operation to solder the tail portions and the cable is performed in such a situation that the tail portions and the cable are not supported. Thus, both the tail portions and the cable are easily moved so that the quality of the soldering connection will be adversely affected. Therefore, it is necessary to provide a spacer having a supporting portion for supporting the tail portions of the contacts to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages.
U.S. Patent Pub. No. 2003/0129875 A1 discloses a cable end connector assembly comprising an electrical connector, a cable solderable to the electrical connector and a protective sleeve over-molded with a rear end of the electrical connector and a front end of the cable. The electrical connector comprises an insulative housing, a plurality of conductive terminals each having a connecting end, and a base. The housing has a connecting side and a pair of protruding flanges extending outwardly from the connecting side. The base has a first side that can abut against the connecting side, and defines a plurality of downwardly tapering trapezoid-shaped grooves in a top surface thereof and a stop block proximate to the first side. After the insulative housing, the conductive terminals and the base are assembled with each other, the connecting end of each terminal is received and constrained within a corresponding groove such that no left or right positional deviation will occur and such that adjacent terminals do not contact each other. When the terminals are soldered to wires of the cable, corresponding wires will be respectively connected to the connecting ends and constrained by the respective groove. During soldering, both the wires and the connecting ends are supported by the base, thereby assuring a reliable electrical connection between the cable and the conductive terminals. However, the base interlocks with the insulative housing only by engagement between connecting surfaces at two sides of the stop block and the protruding flanges of the housing. When an overmolding process is applied to manufacture a protective sleeve, a flowable plastic material must be first injected into the mold so as to form the protective sleeve. However, high pressure generated upon injection of the molding material will keep the material to flow continuously. Therefore, the spacer is easily subject to impact so as to be moved with respective to the housing, which inevitably affects an electrical connection between the terminals and the wires of the cable.
Hence, it is desired to provide a cable end connector assembly with an improved spacer to avoid the foregoing drawbacks.